North Macedonia’s Language Law of 2018

In 2019, a new law regulating the use of languages other than Macedonian entered into force in North Macedonia. Language issues have always been a hot topic in North Macedonia and one capable of stirring controversial debate, especially between the Albanian- and the Macedonian- speaking population. This is also the case for this most recent piece of legislation. The present article discusses initially the constitutional and political background to the adoption of the law. It then analyses some of the most disputed aspects of the law. Most of them relate to the broader issues of democracy and rule of law as well as the balance with other human rights.

Don't Say Practical Criticism, Say Fuck the Police

This article responds to John Wilkinson's piece, ‘Moreover: Reading Alfred Starr Hamilton’. Opening with a consideration of the connections between language, law, economy, and freedom, it draws attention to Wilkinson's discussion of letters Hamilton wrote to the Montclair Police Department in 2020. These letters suggest that Hamilton's work might be usefully read as emerging from the economy of racial capitalism, and indicate the limits of his poetic search for freedom.

Language Law and Policy of the Federal Government of Ethiopia: Implications for Fair Trial and the Rights of Non-Amharic Language Speakers Accused

Ethiopia is a multilingual country with a federal form of state structure. The 1995 Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE Constitution) gave equal recognition for all Ethiopian languages, but has chosen Amharic to become the working language of the Federal Government. In order to accommodate the needs of non-Amharic speakers in the provision of public services, the Constitution and other laws such as the Criminal Procedure Code, require the use of interpreters. Particularly in criminal proceedings, non-Amharic speakers are entitled to be assisted with a ‘qualified’ interpreter to meaningfully participate in the cases. In practice, it is observed that accused people who do not speak the working language of the federal government are unable to effectively understand or get prompt and detailed information regarding the nature and effect of the case brought against them. Even if they know the case, they are not able to effectively explain their defences to the court or associated bodies, and thereby defend their rights. This study reveals that non-Amharic speakers are not effectively served according to the legal standards. This problem subsists mainly due to the absence or limited number of interpreters, as well as the use of untrained interpreters. Despite some efforts to address the problem, the federal government has not yet laid down any formal mechanism by which people with limited and/or no Amharic language proficiency are properly served in criminal proceedings both before and during trial. This study proposes the federal government to establish court interpreter training institutions and to standardise court interpretation by allocating the necessary budget; lay down a formal mechanism such as enacting detailed laws and working manuals for assigning interpreters; providing other local languages the status of working language; consulting interpretation technologies and working in collaboration with different stakeholders.

Law as a Language, Law as an Art: Reflections on James Boyd White's Keep Law Alive

Keep Law Alive, the latest book by law and literature scholar James Boyd White, is an important apologia for the traditional understanding and practice of law in the United States. Law, White argues, has served as a language in a sense closely parallel to what we mean by referring to English or Spanish as a language: law provides those fluent in it with the tools to describe the social world and to imagine its transformation, but without scripting what the speaker must say. White also envisions law as an art that evokes imagination, emotion and personal judgment, as well as the mind, and that is fundamentally oriented toward the realization of justice. Intellectual, social and political changes, however, threaten to displace law as a language and art with a view of law as an essentially empty rhetoric that cloaks the use of abstract and impersonal reasoning often borrowed from other disciplines. The survival of law depends on the willingness of those who speak it to continue its practice as an art that serves a humane vision of political life.

Macedonia – nowe wyzwania i trudne kompromisy (2016−2019)

Macedonia – New Challenges and Difficult Compromises (2016−2019) After the SDSM (Socijaldemokratski sojuz na Makedonija – Social Democratic Union of Macedonia) took over the government in 2017, the party proposed reforms which, although fundamental for the future of the country, were difficult to accept by the majority of Macedonian society. Nevertheless, SDSM’s policy, approved and monitored by the European Union and the US, was to lead to Macedonia joining NATO and EU structures in the near future. It should also be noted that both the US and the EU are strategic partners of the Republic, which actively support the processes taking place there. Having signed the agreement with Greece, on 17 June 2018 the Republic of Macedonia changed its official name. After the entry into force of the amendments to the Constitution and ratification of the Greek-Macedonian bilateral agreement by both parties, the country adopted the name of the Republic of North Macedonia (mac. Република Серверна Македонија). In February 2019, just after the parliaments of North Macedonia and Greece ratified the Prespa Agreement, the accession process of North Macedonia to NATO began. The condition for accession was the consent of the parliaments of all members of the Alliance for enlargement. Immediately after such approval, on 27 March 2020, the decision on membership was announced in Brussels by its chairman, Jens Stoltenberg. Macedonia’s relations with Bulgaria and Serbia have also changed, and the Albanians have been granted further privileges and rights in this country – in the opinion of the Macedonians it is very difficult to accept and implement. The escalation of nationalist sentiment in the country’s internal relations is important, caused not only by foreign policy but also by concessions to the Albanians. The Law on the Use of Languages, also known as the ‘language law’, criticized not only by the Macedonian scientific elite, but also by the Venice Commission, which sees certain threats to Macedonia in granting such extensive rights to the Albanian population, strengthens the opposition. On 26 March 2020, the EU gave its consent to start accession negotiations with Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia. Negotiations with Bulgaria are ongoing and it will be difficult to find a compromise. The biggest challenge for the government will be to convince the public that it is in the interest of its citizens to make compromises with both Greeks and Albanians and in the future with Bulgarians. In this case, the EU position will be very important, both in relation to the Albanian and Bulgarian demands.

The Concept of Legal Language: Law is Language

This paper deals with the metaphor ‘law is language’ coined by James Boyd White and how it can be useful to understand the concept of legal language, connections between law and language and how the term language is used in the legal realm. In the beginning, the article aims to give an overview of possible approaches to legal language and continues with further analysis of one of them (the above-mentioned White’s proposition). By applying a semiotic approach to this concept, namely Saussure’s theory of distinguishing between langue (language) and parole (speaking), the paper helps to understand that language (and even legal language) can be understood in two different forms. It can be either considered an abstract system of signs, or it can be comprehended as individual speech acts – langue and parole, respectively. White’s metaphor is usually used in the meaning of texts, way of reading, writing and speaking. However, such conception corresponds to language in the sense of parole. These considerations lead at the end of the article towards the communicative theory of law and its merits to jurisprudence. According to a given doctrine, in some instances it can be more accurate to consider law as communication rather than language (and vice versa). Nevertheless, in either case, it is essential to bear in mind the distinction between both of the concepts.

The language policy of Ukraine in the retail and services sphere

This paper explores how the language policy of Ukraine is established in the retail and services sphere. The analysis focuses on the Ukrainian legislation which regulates the use of the official language and other languages in advertising, product information, and services. In the period of the Ukrainian state independence, the language use in the retail and servi-ces sphere is determined by Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine which lays down the basic principles for the operation of languages in Ukraine and the legislative documents which regu-late customer-provider relationships and contain requirements for goods and consumer services.The article states that information should be provided to the consumer in accordance with the lan-guage legislation requirements. The Law “On Languages in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic” (1989) and especially the so-called “Kivalov – Kolesnichenko language law” did not guarantee Ukrainian citizens the right to receive information and to be served in the official language, i.e., in Ukrainian. The 2019 language law, Article 30, however, obliges all service providers to serve consumers and provide information about goods and services in Ukrainian. Keywords: sociolinguistics, language policy, retail and services sphere, Ukrainian language.

Ethnolinguistic situation in the regions of Southern Siberia

The goal of this research consists in examination of ethnolinguistic situation in the regions of Southern Siberia. The author sets the following tasks: determine the key vectors of research within the framework of ethnolinguistic theme of the indicated regions in post-Soviet period; elucidate the main statistical factors of ethnolinguistic dynamics in the titular ethnic groups; reveal the main factors influencing ethnolinguistic situation; analyze language problems in the republics. The object of this research is the representatives of titular ethnic groups of Southern Siberia, while the subject is ethnolinguistic situation in the regions of Southern Siberia. The article discusses ethnolinguistic situation of the titular ethnic groups of Southern Siberia based on socio-legal, socio-demographic, and sociological factors. Special attention is given to socio-legal component. The following conclusions are formulated. 1. The dominant vectors of research on ethnolinguistic situation consist in examination of the problems of functionality of the Russian and Tuvan languages in the Tuva Republic, and languages of the titular ethnic groups – in Khakassia and Altai. 2. The main statistical indicators (number of native speakers, monolinguals, Russian speakers among titular ethnoses) testify to the ongoing language shift. 3. The crucial factors impacting ethnolinguistic situation are ethnolinguistic law and social environment. The language law of titular ethnic groups of Southern Siberia has the peculiarities of development with clear manifestation in Tuva Republic at the first and last stage of language law. Social environment in the Tuva Republic is characterized by a more beneficial territorial and information space, which defines the situation in the sphere of functionality of native language; then follow Altai and Khakassia. 4. The determined language problems consists in the absence of language environment (dispersed settlement of Altai, and Khakas population), specifics of bilingualism in the regions (Russian-Khakas, Tuvan-Russian; Russian-Altai, and Russian-Kazakh), imperfection of the complex of educational components (educational materials for not native speakers, proper teaching technique, ratio of the levels of teaching native language within the system of education by the categories principal subject and elective course).